Amazing Biochemistry

Question 1

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1958- Frederick Sanger

AA, Peptides…

Answer 1

1958-“for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin.”

• Beginning in the 1940s, Frederick Sanger studied the composition of the insulin molecule.
• -> He used acids to break the molecule into smaller parts, which were separated from one another with the help of electrophoresis and
  chromatography. Further analyses determined the amino acid sequences.
• in 1955 Frederick Sanger identified how the chains are linked together

Question 2

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1964-
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

(AA, Peptides…)

Answer 2

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin successfully determined
the crystal structure of penicillin in 1946 and, in 1956, also the structure of vitamin B12, which has the most complex structure of all vitamins.

In 1969, after 35 years of work, Hodgkin was able to decipher the structure of insulin (3D)

Question 3

Nobel Prize in Physics 1915-
Sir William Henry Bragg and
William Lawrence Bragg (25y)

(secondary structure, protein folding…)

Answer 3

Analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays

Father and son made essential finding for subsequent determination of protein structure by x-ray crystallography

Question 4

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954- Linus Pauling

secondary structure, protein folding…

Answer 4

Chemical bonding in complex molecules: “for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances.”

Linus Pauling was among the pioneers who used quantum mechanics to understand and describe chemical bonding and he worked on the structures of biologically important chemical compounds. In 1951 he published the structure of the alpha helix, which is an important basic component of many proteins.

Question 5

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2002-John B. Fenn, Koichi Tanaka and Kurt Wüthrich

(secondary structure, protein folding…)

Answer 5

Methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules

“for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules”:

• to John B. Fenn, Koichi Tanaka (mass spectrometry)
• Kurt Wüthrich (nuclear magnetic resonance)

Question 6

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008- Osamu Shimomura,
Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien

(secondary structure, protein folding…)

Answer 6

Discovery & Development of Green fluorescent protein (GFP)

GFP can be linked to other proteins thanks to genetic
engineering, it has become an important tool for studying biological processes in cells

Question 7

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017-
Jacques Dubochet, Joachim
Frank and Richard Henderson

(secondary structure, protein folding…)

Answer 7

Cryo-EM structures of biomolecules

“for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.”

Question 8

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1962- Max Perutz and John Kendrew

protein structure & function..

Answer 8

Hemoglobin and Myoglobin Structure

“for their studies of the structures of globular proteins.”

Question 9

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1972- 1/2 to Christian B. Anfinsen,
1/2 jointly to Stanford Moore and William H. Stein

(protein structure & function..)

Answer 9

Protein Structure and Folding

• 1/2 to Christian B. Anfinsen “for his work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation”,
• 1/2 jointly to Stanford Moore and William H. Stein “for their contribution to the understanding of the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active centre of the ribonuclease molecule.”

Question 10

Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine 1972- jointly to Gerald M. Edelman, Rodney R. Porter

(protein structure & function..)

Answer 10

Structure of antibodies- “for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies.”

They determined that immunoglobulins were composed of two heavy chains and two light chains. There are three domains in the molecule. Two of them form binding sites for antigens and the third one links the two heavy chains together.

Question 11

Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine 1962- Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins

(DNA…)

Answer 11

Structure of DNA “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”

Question 12

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1980- Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger

(DNA…)

Answer 12

Biochemistry of nucleic acids and recombinant-DNA

-to Paul Berg “for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA”,
- to Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger “for their contributions
concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids.”

Question 13

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009- jointly to Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath

(DNA…)

Answer 13

“for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”

Question 14

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018- 1/2 to Frances H. Arnold,
1/2 jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter

(DNA…)

Answer 14

Directed evolution of
enzymes and antibodies

-1/2 to Frances H. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes”,
-1/2 jointly to George
P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies.”